State to employees: Get safer, save money

ATLANTA - The state government's new service slogan may be "faster, friendlier, easier," but one agency is trying to make sure that doesn't mean using a lead foot on the road.

Improving state employees' driving habits is only one aim of a new program to boost safety and reduce what taxpayers' have to spend on insurance for the government.

Among the changes: State workers can expect to have their driving monitored - even while off duty; to get more training; and to see new signs, handrails and other safety equipment on the job, according to Brad Douglas, commissioner of the Department of Administrative Services.

Administrative services pays $100 million a year in claims triggered by accidents caused by state workers - and even county workers under state contract - so modest improvement in worker safety can free up millions of dollars in state money for other uses.

"These are some of the most dangerous occupations, whether it's drilling into somebody's brain to remove a tumor at the Medical College of Georgia or putting on a hard hat for the (state Department of Transportation)," Douglas said.

Some changes will be as small as tagging all state vehicles with bumper stickers saying "How's my driving?" and giving a toll-free phone number for offended drivers to call.

A new law gives Douglas the power to pull money out of any agency's budget if it has too many accidents.

For example, the University System Board of Regents accounts for 65 percent of all property claims while the state Department of Human Resources spawns the most auto-damage claims.

Some small changes, though, can have a big impact. Simply getting 40,000 employees to watch an online video reduced auto accidents 42 percent in six months, Douglas said. The video includes a number of "don'ts," telling state workers not to eat or smoke in state vehicles and telling them to stay away from drive-through windows.

Douglas expects some hesitancy to change, but Chip Warren, national representative of the Service Employees International Union that represents state workers, says objections aren't likely. "We have no problem with additional training," Warren said. "Anything that makes our employees safer, we're all for that."

Businesses typically use the risk-management techniques with their employees that the state just now is implementing, according to insurance consultant Mike Taylor of Dawson, Taylor & Co. in Augusta. That doesn't mean putting them into place is always popular.

"If you make a dramatic change, resistance would be higher," Taylor said. "People don't like change. If they've been doing something for a long time, they start looking for shortcuts, and they don't like things that might make the job more difficult."

But Ted Low, the state's new chief loss control and safety officer, said studies show that morale will rise if safety programs are implemented in a way that makes employees feel empowered to take action to lower risks.

"There's always going to be that people don't want to change," Low said, adding that he wants to be persuasive. "I don't want to be the Safety Cop."